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Journal Information

  • ISSN: 2327-1574
  • eISSN: 2327-1590
  • Frequency: Three times per year

Description

QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (published 3 times/yr.) brings together scholars, activists, public intellectuals, artists, and policy and culture makers to discuss, debate, and mobilize issues and initiatives that matter to the diverse lived experience, struggle, and transformation of GLBTQ peoples and communities wherever they may be. With an emphasis on worldmaking praxis, QED welcomes theory, criticism, history, policy analysis, public argument, and creative exhibition, seeking to foster intellectual and activist work through essays, commentaries, interviews, roundtable discussions, and book and event reviews.

QED is not an acronym, though, of course, Q resonates queerly for us, as we imagine it will for many readers. We wish our intentional indeterminacy to be playful, productive, propulsive. This configuration will be recognized by some as signifying the Latin phrase, quod erat demonstrandum, meaning “that which had to be demonstrated,” which used to be placed at the end of mathematical proofs to inscribe a stamp of consummation. This connotation appeals to us insofar as we understand this journal’s mission as centrally concerned with praxis, which is to say that we believe the success of QED generally, and of any of the words on its pages, shall be determined by its demonstration, by the difference it seeks to manifest in the world. We hope that this high bar, this idealism, will be constitutive. Other readers, though lamentably too few given the infrastructural deficits vexing GLBTQ history and memory, will recognize Q.E.D. as the title of Gertrude Stein’s explicitly lesbian autobiographical novel, written in 1903 but not published until after her death in 1950. Stein’s use of the acronym ironically represented the relations among the women that unfolded in her narrative. Activism, archive, wit, desire—our hope is that all of these terms will, among others, characterize this GLBTQ project, and that you will venture to make other meanings and doings of it.

Our use of theterm “worldmaking” is much more deliberate in its derivation. Since our first encounter 15 years ago with its conceptualization by queer theorists Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner in their influential essay, “Sex in Public,” we have been inspired and challenged by the still generative and demanding implications of their idea of “queer worldmaking”—creative, performative, intimate, public, disruptive, utopian, and more. Of such a “world-making project,” they wrote: “The queer world is a space of entrances, exits, unsystematized lines of acquaintance, projected horizons, typifying examples, alternate routes, blockages, incommensurate geographies.” Among its key assumptions and commitments are belonging, transformation, memory, mobility, “the inventiveness of the queer world making and of the queer world’s fragility.” GLBTQ people, through complex theory, artful exhibition, street activism, and practices of everyday life, have richly embodied, interrogated, and extended this concept. Our appropriation of it is dedicatory and aspirational.

Editorial Board

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

Charles E. Morris III
Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies
Syracuse University
114 Sims Hall
Syracuse, NY 13244
TEL (315) 443-3980

Thomas K. Nakayama
Department of Communication Studies
204 Lake Hall
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
TEL (617) 373-7342

BOOK REVIEW EDITOR

Godfried Asante, San Diego State University

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

D Dirk, Syracuse University

MANAGING BOARD

Tony Adams, Bradley University
Jonathan Alexander, University of California-Irvine
Kathleen M. Battles, Oakland University
Jeffrey Bennett, Vanderbilt University
Keith Berry, University of South Florida
Jean Bessette, University of Vermont
Daniel Brouwer†, Arizona State University
Bernadette Calafell, Gonzaga University
Dana Cloud, Independent Scholar
Ryan Conrad, York University
Lisa M. Corrigan, University of Arkansas
E. Cram, University of Iowa
Thomas Dunn, Colorado State University
Shinsuke Eguchi, University of New Mexico
John Nguyen Erni, Hong Kong Baptist University
Ragan Fox, California State University, Long Beach
Dustin Goltz, DePaul University
Craig Gingrich-Philbrook, Southern Illinois University
David Gudelunas, University of Tampa
Annie Hill, University of Texas, Austin
Shuzhen Huang, Bloomsburg University
Claire Sisco King, Vanderbilt University
Pamela Lannutti, Widener University
Lore/tta LeMaster, Arizona State University
Jimmie Manning, University of Nevada, Reno
Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., University of Rochester
Sara McKinnon, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Michaela D.E. Meyer, Christopher Newport University
Timothy Oleksiak, University of Massachusetts Boston
Kimberlee Pérez, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Eric Darnell Pritchard, University of Arkansas
Erin Rand, Syracuse University
K.J. Rawson, Northeastern University
Jacqueline Rhodes, Michigan State University
Aimee Carrillo Rowe, California State University, Northridge
Keven James Rudrow, Syracuse University
Alyssa Samek, California State University Fullerton
Rico Self, Southwestern University
Nishant Shahani, Washington State University
John M. Sloop, Vanderbilt University
Andrew Spieldenner, California State University San Marcos
Jennifer Tyburczy, University of California, Santa Barbara
Pamela VanHaitsma, Pennsylvania State University
Isaac West, Vanderbilt University
Gust Yep, San Francisco State University

ADVISORY BOARD

Rea Carey, Executive Director, NGLTF
Fred Corey, Arizona State University
Mary Gray, Indiana University
Larry Gross, University of Southern California
Jin Haritaworn, Helsinki University
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
Mark Jordan, Danforth Center of Religion & Politics
Adela C. Licona, University of Arizona
Robert McRuer, George Washington University
Tim Miller, Performance Artist, Activist
Cindy Patton, Simon Fraser University
Horacio Roque Ramírez†, University of California, Santa Barbara
Hugh Ryan, Pop Up Museum of Queer History

Submission Information

SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN

Submissions accepted for consideration:

1). Original Research Manuscripts, 10,000 word maximum (including endnotes), Chicago Manual of Style, endnote-style citations only;

2). Original Article-Length Non-Academic Essays, 5,000 word maximum.

ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL HERE.

Submissions are accepted only in MS-Word format. Upon creating an account, you will be asked to enter information about yourself and your article. There should be no identifying information [i.e. the name(s), affiliation(s) of the author(s)] in the document itself for purposes of anonymous review. Upload files containing all tables and figures as supplemental materials. A confirmation note will be sent immediately after the submission is received.

BOOK REVIEWS: Standard Book Reviews for QED should be 800–1,200 words although, depending on the book being reviewed, they may be shorter or longer. Book reviewers should discuss the length of the review with the Book Review Editor before writing. Reviews should be accessibly written with an audience in mind that is comprised of academics, activists, and artists interested in GLBTQ issues. Inquiries should be sent to: Godfried Asante, Book Review Editor.

FILM REVIEWS: Please review these instructions before submission. Contact Bernadette Marie Calafell with any questions at calafell@gonzaga.edu.

EDITORIAL POLICY

All manuscripts submitted for publication must be original work that has not been published previously and is not currently under consideration by any other publication. All contributions will be peer reviewed by QED Editorial Board members and external reviewers. Response time is typically three months from date of submission. Contributions are accepted on a rolling basis. Authors must be willing to respond to reviewers’ comments, make revisions, and review page proofs in a timely manner. A tentative schedule will be provided at time of submission acceptance.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

QED follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., and uses endnote-style citations. Refer to the to the QED Style Sheet to prepare your manuscript for submission.

QED STYLE SHEET

IMAGES AND DERIVATIVE MATERIALS

  • It is the author’s obligation and responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright and/or other use restrictions prior to submitting materials to MSU Press for publication.
  • Images must be submitted as supplementary, clearly-labeled files at time of submission.
  • All images must be minimum 300 dpi at planned publication size.
  • Citations, permissions, and captions are required upon submission for all images.
  • We cannot publish such materials without an accompanying signed permissions letter.

PUBLISHING AGREEMENTS

Authors accepted for publication must agree to the terms of the Author Publishing Agreement before the piece can be published.

JOURNALS ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT

The MSU Press journals program bases our ethics practices on those suggested by the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE). For a summary of our core principles, see this document. Learn more at publicationethics.org.

Calls for Papers

Re-examining Communication and Media Practices in/across Queer Asia

(PDF Download)

This is an open call to academics, educators, activists, public intellectuals, artists, policy and culture makers, and communication and media practitioners.

We have been witnessing ongoing academic concerns about Queer Asia in various academic disciplines (Luther & Ung Loh, 2019; Martin, Jackson, McLelland, & Yue, 2008; Spigel, Berry, Martin, & Yue, 2003), but these investigations have not received sufficient attention in the field of GLBTQ studies rooted in the Western academic tradition. Put simply, the academic discussions of Queer Asia are still underdeveloped. Research on Queer Asia lacks representation even though we increasingly witness the vibrancy of queer scenes in the region thanks to changing political situations, the rapid distribution of newer communication technology, and the increasing transnational exchanges in and across the region. Based on academic and non-academic concerns in queer issues that are geographically and culturally diverse, this special issue seeks to decolonize the Western-centric traditions of academic knowledge productions and initiate more conversations about Queer Asian issues.

Here, it is important to maintain that thinking about, examining, and conceptualizing Queer Asia is a rather challenging task. For example, Asia exhibits mixed modalities in many sectors: contradicting values such as 1) premodernity, modernity, and postmodernity; 2) Confucianism, Christianity, Buddhism, Muslim, and other indigenous beliefs; 3) monarchy, theocracy, communism, democracy, and other governmental systems; and 4) developed economies, middle-income economies, and developing economies. Indeed, Asia is an imagined region that reinforces the white, Western cartography of the globe. Asia encompasses cultures and nation-states that are vastly dissimilar and competitive in terms of political systems, religions, economic structures, societal norms, and cultural traditions. Hence, it is nearly impossible to uniformly apply established theories to this region and to formulate a theory or method that can explain Queer Asia. We better look into what is happening and enrich historically saturated and culturally specific queer practices, and thereby the discussion surrounding Queer Asia is not muffled by Western-dominated theorizings of queerness.

To engage in this special issue, we demonstrate Queer Asia as a theory/method. By this means, Queer Asia is a critical cultural theory and method that not only problematizes Asia as a region but also refashions Asia as an alternative lens for studying localized queer issues and concerns of sexual and gender minoritarians (e.g., Chiang & Wong, 2017; Yue, 2017). More specifically, Queer Asia troubles the ways in which the manifestations, representations, and performances of localized sexual and gender minoritarians reify and resist global, transnational flows of Western queer formations, including GLBTQ human rights. At the same time, Queer Asia reconsiders how intra/inter-regional cultural (dis)connectivities play into locally nuanced productions of sexual and gender minoritarian cultures. Queer Asia is about centralizing queerness to unsettle the ordinary cartography of Asia as a region in order to speak back to the Western-centric theorizing and paradigms of queerness (Luther & Ung Loh, 2019). Hence, Queer Asia, which recognizes multiple convergences and divergences of queerness in and across Asia, is not an area study. It is about rewriting, remaking, and revising queer practices of Asia(nness) as a multiple, unfinalized, and dynamic conception that decolonizes the whiteness/Westernness of queer modernities as the global, transitional normativity.

Overall, this special issue aims to examine how historical particularities, contemporary sociopolitical events, and transregional connectivity create Queer Asian communicative cultures and productions in the proposed spaces in order to complicate Western-oriented queer studies. By revisiting and traveling around the multiple localities of Queer Asianness working with communication and media practices, we hope to maintain a futuristic space where scholars continue to discuss Queer Asia and contribute to building up Queer Asian studies further.

Contributors may submit an academic essay (6,000-7,000 including references) or a forum discussion (1,000-3,000 words) that responds to the following question for this issue: What’s happening in/across Queer Asia as a space, not geographically limited? We want to answer this question with a focus on communication and media practices in/across Asia. By communication and/or media practices, we mean ongoing processes and activities in which media technology, social institutions, and/or relational settings alter, shape, and reinforce situated meanings. We seek 250-500 word proposals that pay attention to underrepresented issues and concerns of cultures, groups, and traditions overlooked by the name of Queer Asia. Especially, we welcome essays from scholars, educators, activists, artists, policy and culture makers, and communication and media practitioners that disrupt and reshape existing cisgender/nontrans-centric queer Asia(s).

When you submit a proposal, please indicate the contribution type: academic essay or forum discussion.

 

Timeline:

250-500 word proposals due: February 28, 2022

Requests for full manuscripts: April 15, 2022

Full manuscripts due: August 15, 2022

Expected Publication: One of the 2023 issues

 

Please submit proposals to Jungmin Kwon (jungmin.kwon@pdx.edu) and Shinsuke Eguchi (seguchi@unm.edu). Please feel safe and free to inquire with questions or concerns before deadlines.

 

 

Queer Generosity: Approaching Something Like Queer Love in Always Precarious Times

(PDF download)

This is an open call to academics and non-academics.

In any act of worldmaking, tensions between what is best for a community and best for individuals within that community form axes around which debate, contention, struggle, compromise are all but inevitable.  Particularly in queer worldbuilding, with our commitment to radical self-determination, we worry over what is good for the individual queer while also keeping an eye on what is good for the larger queer community and its cultural and political projects.

Too often, such tensions have degraded into skirmishes over strategy that cast complex issues as oversimplified binaries (e.g., assimilate or opt out) and that do not generatively forward creative possibilities for queer worldmaking. Instead, we see such tensions not just as opportunities for misunderstandings and conflict, but also as the possibility to offer and receive gifts — gifts of experience, insight, embodied struggle, and queer wisdom — that collectively constitute queer worldbuilding.  Such possibilities often arise out of robust conversation amongst queers working, thinking, and feeling their way across multiple and intersecting lines of not just sexuality and gender but also race, ethnicity, class, and ability.  As such, we advocate for queer generosity, a conceptual, theoretical, and strategic approach that we hope this special issue will help develop.

Generosity is historically embedded within economies of exchange and gift giving. In the ancient Greek tradition, Aristotle (NE) insists that for gifts to be virtuous, they must be given freely and with the right intentions. However, sometimes rhetors (un)intentionally offer terrible gifts, those that Jennifer Clary-Lemon describes as “gifts we do not want to receive” (n.p.). As with all gifts articulated within economies of exchange, there rests a presumption of reception, response, and an acknowledgment of the relationships that emerge. These presumptions, further, are shaped by race, class, gender, age, ability, geography, and sexuality.

However, while always influenced by the uneven power dynamics of the categories above, generosity need not be imagined within economies of exchange. While contributions may certainly go beyond the boundaries of this call, we highlight three areas where queer, feminist, anti-racist, anti-ableist, and thinkers engaged in class critique might be able to extend generosity beyond the logics of exchange: embodiment, affect, and epistemology.

Embodiment: As feminist philosopher Rosalyn Diprose suggests, generosity “is an openness to others that not only precedes and establishes communal relations but constitutes the self as open to others” (p. 4). Diprose’s notion of corporeal generosity is not caught up in the logics of exchange but in the construction of the self that is necessary to move us toward social justice.  Nelson Rodriquez suggests that trans generosity “opens up the possibility of framing queer embodiments more generally as forms of ‘bodily generosity’ that can potentially become a resource for students in terms of imagining their own bodies and identities as sites of ‘endless becoming’” (p. 270). The bodily generosity envisioned by Rodriguez opens questions of bodies moving through time and space. Bodies move and act through spacetime which suggests ways of movement and being together in ecologies of human and non-human agents. We note Rodriguez’s connection between the ontology of bodily generosity and the open space for considering generosity as transformative experiences, experiences that are fraught with asymmetrical power dynamics.

Affect: Similarly, performance studies scholar Jill Dolan’s notion of queer critical generosity encourages ways of giving back to artists in ways that “draw out [a piece of art’s] borders, boundaries, and beauty as evocatively” as possible (Dolan, n.p.). Dolan links the powerful experiences we have in the theater with the drive to use that affective response beyond the fleeting moments during a show. The generous critic is one who both describes those feelings and offers ways to carry them forward beyond the moments of our viewing. Dolan states that “critical generosity is a necessary gesture in how we see the relationship of performance (and the arts in general) to the project of world building, as it allows us to think specifically beyond the present of reception into the near future of potential activism and engagement” (n.p.). What is important to recognize here in Dolan’s notion of critical generosity is that the transformative effects of experience lead to material action beyond the present.

Epistemology: Generosity may also be understood as an epistemology, a way of knowing and responding to others. For example, though not framed as such, Eve Sedgwick’s “reparative reading” can be understood as a gesture of generosity free from the logics of exchange. Such a reading imagines space and places for queer survival where none may exist. In the reparative reading, the critic approaches another not to offer her a gift but to treat what the other offers us with a kindness of spirit that resists doing harm.

Finally, in times of crisis, critical orientations toward violence make generosity seem like a weak political stance. However, as Isaac West notes, “[m]ore generous modes of queer critique are not naïve nor do they excuse those moments where norms and normativities are reinforced more than they are challenged” (p. 541) Rather, generous critiques can create new forms of life that help us imagine creative reasons to go on living.

***

Whether structured within the logics of exchange, embodiment, affect, or epistemology, the indeterminacy of reception, response, and acknowledgment demanded by generosity reveals tensions between the radical right for self-determination and communities of practice that this special issue seeks to engage. These tensions leave us with several questions that we hope this special issue will address:

  • What queer tensions exist between communities of practice and the right to self-determination?  And how might such tensions be approached generously?
  • What technologies for the transmission of generosity are available for rhetors and how might our audiences respond to those technologies?
  • What criteria are necessary for determining who should receive generosity, and how?
  • How might queer generosity shape our conceptions of politics and the political?

The contributions in this special issue may come at these questions obliquely. We are specifically seeking contributions from scholars, teachers, and activists from historically oppressed groups and/or contributions that attend to the intellectual contributions from these groups.

Contributors may submit original academic research or relevant non-academic research (7,000-9,000 words). We welcome traditional, queered, and queering forms for this special issue. We also seek shorter pieces for a forum discussion (4,000-5,000 words) that responds to the following question:

What are queer and trans politicians, scholars, and artists doing to advance queer generosity?

Think, for example, of the Silence = Death campaign as a collective struggle rhetorically linking speech with life and working against the cruel negligence of the Reagan administration. This is a politics of visibility built on the increasing call to “come out” (cf. Harvey Milk, Jean O’Leary’s Day of Visibility).  Contrarily, Sylvia Rivera’s “Y’all Better Quiet Down” was an individual critique against the liberal gaystream political activism of the time. “YBQD” disrupted the collective’s forward movement toward an exclusionary gay rights agenda. Forum contributors will articulate a living individual or collective that illustrates what queer or trans* people are doing currently to help us think more fully about queer generosity.

In your proposal, please indicate the contribution type: academic research, non-academic research, or forum contribution.

Timeline:

250-500 word proposals due:             December 1, 2020

Requests for full manuscripts:            December 18, 2021

Full manuscripts due:                         June 1, 2021

Publication:                                         Winter/Spring 2022 vol. 9, no. 1

Please submit proposals to Timothy Oleksiak (Timothy.Oleksiak@umb.edu) and Jonathan Alexander (jfalexan@uci.edu). Please feel safe and free to inquire with questions or concerns before deadlines.